Three Safety Issues for Large-scale Bunker Silos and Drive

Three Safety Issues for Large-scale Bunker Silos
and Drive-over Piles in North America
Ruth E.
1
Bolsen and
Keith K.
2
Bolsen
1Managing
Director, Keith Bolsen & Associates, Austin, Texas, USA
2Professor Emeritus, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas, USA
Accident 1. A feedlot nutritionist had the
1. TAKE HOME MESSAGE


following near miss. “I was taking core samples
at one of our large dairy customers, and I had just
moved away from the face when a large section
just fell off. This was a very well packed silo and
had immaculate face management”.
Think safety first.
The silage industry has nothing to lose by
practicing safety: it has everything to lose
by not practicing it.
2. INTRODUCTION
 Few farming operations invite as many opportunities for injury or fatality as a silage program.
Silage-related tragedy knows no age boundary as workers and innocent bystanders of all ages have
been injured or killed during harvest and feedout.
 Consistently protecting employees, equipment, and property throughout harvesting, filling, and
feeding does not occur without thought, preparation, and training.

3. THREE MAJOR HAZARDS
 Fall from height
 Avalanche/collapsing silage
 Complacency
Accident 2. A nutritionist almost lost his life the day he took silage
samples from a bunker silo with a 9-m high feedout face. “Even
though I was standing 6 m from the face, 12 tonnes of silage
collapsed on me. I did not see or hear anything. I had been in
silage pits hundreds of times, and you just become kind of
complacent because nothing ever happens. It just took one time”.
Accident 3. “The accident happened on 14 June 1974 while making wheat silage at Kansas State University’s Beef Cattle Research
Farm. The blower plugged for about the eighth time that afternoon, and I started to dig the forage out from the throat of the
blower. But the PTO shaft made one more revolution. Zap! The blower blade cut off the ends of three fingers on my right hand”.
Accident 4. Sugar Valley Volunteer Fire Company responded to a
farm accident in Greene Township after Kenneth R Hettinger, 63,
of Rebersburg, PA became entrapped under three tonnes of
silage. Hettinger was removed from the silage but attempts to
resuscitate him failed, and he was pronounced dead at the
scene.
Holin, F. 2010b. Surviving a silage avalanche. In: Hay & Forage
Grower. February issue. Pg. 38.
WMUR TV. 2010. Boy buried in feed pile dies. Claremont, New
Hampshire. USA http://www.wmur.com/r/23258422/detail.html
4. CONCLUSIONS
 It is best to take steps to eliminate or control hazards in
advance than to rely upon yourself or others to make the
correct decision or execute the perfect response when a
hazard is encountered.
 Only experienced people should operate equipment used
to harvest, fill, pack, seal and feed in a silage program.
 The correct sizing of bunkers and piles can dramatically
reduce the risk of an accident.